Showing the letters of five
non-Roman alphabets and the transliterations used in the
etymologies

Hebrew1,4

Arabic3,4

Greek7

Russian8

Sanskrit11

aleph

2

beth

b, bh

gimel

g, gh

daleth

d, dh

he

h

waw

w

zayin

z

heth

teth

yod

y

kaph

k, kh

lamed

l

mem

m

nun

n

samekh

s

ayin



pe

p, ph

sadhe

qoph

q

resh

r

sin

shin

sh

taw

t, th

alif

5

b

t

th

j

kh

d

dh

r

z

s

sh

ayn



ghayn

gh

f

q

k

l

m

n

h6

w

y

alpha

a

beta

b

gamma

g, n

delta

d

epsilon

e

zeta

z

eta

theta

th

iota

i

kappa

k

lambda

l

mu

m

nu

n

xi

x

omicron

o

pi

p

rho

r, rh

sigma

s

tau

t

upsilon

y, u

phi

ph

chi

ch

psi

ps

omega

a

b

v

g

d

e

zh

z

k

l

m

n

o

p

r

s

t

u

f

kh

ts

ch

sh

shch



y



e

yu

ya

a

i

u

t

th

d

dh

e

n

ai

p

o

ph

au

b

bh

m

k

y

kh

r

g

l

gh

v

c

ch

s

j

h

jh

1 See ALEPH, BETH, etc., in the vocabulary. Where two forms of a letter
are given, the one at the right is the form used at the end of a
word.
2 Not represented in transliteration when initial.
3 The left column shows the form of each Arabic letter that is
used when it stands alone, the second column its form when it is
joined to the preceding letter, the third column its form when it
is joined to both the preceding and the following letter, and the
right column its form when it is joined to the following letter
only. In the names of the Arabic letters, , ,
and respectively are
pronounced like a in father, i in machine,
u in rude.
4 Hebrew and Arabic are written from right to left. The Hebrew
and Arabic letters are all primarily consonants; a few of them
are also used secondarily to represent certain vowels, but full
indication of vowels, when provided at all, is by means of a
system of dots or strokes adjacent to the consonantal characters.
5 Alif represents no sound in itself, but is used principally as
an indicator of the presence of a glottal stop (transliterated
 medially and finally; not represented in transliteration
when initial) and as the sign of a long a.
6 When has two dots
above it ( ), it is
called and, if it immediately
precedes a vowel, is transliterated t instead of h.
7 See ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, etc., in the vocabulary. The letter gamma is
transliterated n only before velars; the letter upsilon
is transliterated u only as the final element in
diphthongs.
8 See CYRILLIC in the
vocabulary.
9 This sign indicates that the immediately preceding consonant is
not palatalized even though immediately followed by a palatal
vowel.
10 This sign indicates that the immediately preceding consonant
is palatalized even though not immediately followed by a palatal
vowel.
11 The alphabet shown here is the Devanagari. When vowels are
combined with preceding consonants they are indicated by various
strokes or hooks instead of by the signs here given, or, in the
case of short a, not written at all. Thus the character represents
ka; the character , ; the character , ki; the character , ; the character , ku;
the character , ; the
character , ; the character , ; the character , ke; the
character , kai; the character , ko; the
character , kau; and the character , k
without any following vowel. There are also many compound
characters representing combinations of two or more consonants.